


MC and the Strays

by BaconWaffle16



Series: Growing Pains [1]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: 707 | Luciel Choi's Real Name, Abuse of Cat metaphors, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Angst, Brothers, Children being children, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Gen, Little Messengers, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, Mystery, Named MC, Other, Parent-Child Relationship, Pre-Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 04:37:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9702356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaconWaffle16/pseuds/BaconWaffle16
Summary: When a young MC (named Mi-Cha) comes home with a bite on her hand, the first thing her father does is sit her down and ask what happened. The story he hears leads to an interesting conversation, as well as circumstances.





	

Kim Joon knows something was off with his daughter the minute he gets home from work.

She is sitting at the table, doing her homework with a frustrated frown. However, it isn't from the work she's doing, if the sure way her little hand moves her pencil across the paper is any indication. No, her little almond eyes are clouded with thought. A thought that is bothering her.

So, like any father, he doesn’t say anything about it at first. Simply smiles as he steps inside, closes the door, and he removes his work shoes.

“I'm home,” he announces.

Mi-Cha perks up from her work and smiles. She nearly leaps from her seat and bounds to him. Kim catches her instantly and lifts her up, propping her on his hip. She's a bit heavier now that she's turned ten, but there is little he would deny her.

“Hi Daddy,” Mi-Cha says, wrapping her arms around Kim’s neck and near nuzzling him.

“Hey sweetheart.” Kim strokes her back. “Where's Mama?”

“She had to work late at the station. But she said that there were still leftovers we could heat up.”

“That’s good, I'm starving. Let's go see what we've got.”

And so, it goes. A rather typical evening at his home.

That is, until Kim finally notices the bandage wrapped around Mi-Cha’s hand.

It catches his eye as she lifts some bulgogi to her plate, to join with her fried rice and kimchi. Kim pauses in eating and blinks at it.

“Mi-Cha,” he asks, “how did you get that?”

Mi-Cha pauses, her eyes widening a fraction. Then she closes her eyes and sits upright, like it was nothing new.

“I got bitten by something on my way home from school.”

Kim raises an eyebrow. “Something?”

Again, a pause.

“A little cat.” 

Now, Kim narrows his eyes, a new array of worries going through his brain.

“May I see?”

Mi-Cha blinks, then shifts her gaze away, chewing on her lip. She shifts nervously in her seat, much like one who has done wrong. Kim softens his expression, his mouth forming a kind smile.

“It’s all right, I’m not upset,” he says. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Though her eyes light up a little with confidence, Mi-Cha still hesitates in reaching out her bandaged hand to her father. Kim gently takes her little hand and begins removing the bandage. Fortunately, the bite wound isn’t as red as he feared. There is a faint pinkness, but no indication of an infection. While this is a relief, Kim still feels there is something off about the bite. Narrowing his eyes again, he focuses in on the bite and realizes just what is wrong.

The bite is small, but was hard enough to leave a faint indentation that lasted until the end of the day. A little circle of little indents of teeth into his daughter’s skin. Teeth that look too human to be anything else, but also too small for an adult. Kim feels his stomach twist the more the truth hits him. 

_ Another child _ , he contemplates, glancing up at Mi-Cha, who looks even more terrified.  _ A fight…? _

But that doesn’t sound right. Kim knows his daughter, the way he knows the facets of his very being. Mi-Cha is a good child. Mischievous, impatient, and a little compulsive? Definitely. A fighter? Or someone who likes to provoke others? Not very likely. Besides, if it was a fight, not only would Mi-Cha likely have had other wounds, but either Kim or his wife would have been called by the school. So, no; this bite came from no fight. Kim is certain of that.

_ But what…?  _ Then, a question that feels even stranger,  _ And why claim it was from a cat? _

However, instead of asking these questions, Kim decides to ask, “Why did the cat bite you?”

At this, Mi-Cha frowns and narrows her eyes into a glare. “I don’t know! I was only...I just wanted...I don’t know why he bit me!”

_ He _ , Kim notes with a frown.  _ So, it was a boy _ .

“What did you want to do, sweetheart?” He asks softly, despite the spark of irritation he feels.

( _ Whoever this little boy is, he better pray we never meet. _ )

“...I just wanted to help.”

Kim blinks, then tilts his head. Mi-Cha notices his look right away and flushes, looking away.

“See, there were, um,” she stammers, “two cats.”

“...Two?” He blinks again. This weird little tale is just turning more and more bizarre.

“Y-yeah. I-I found them on my way home. They were sleeping under a bridge. But I didn’t know they were sleeping!” Mi-Cha pauses to bring her hand back and wring both her hands together, her eyes gleaming. “I was scared they both were...because they were so  _ small _ , Daddy! Skinny. I-I thought…”

Kim places a hand on her shoulder, coaxing Mi-Cha from her little breakdown. He is still confused, but he understands enough for his heart to go out to her. Mi-Cha is an intelligent child, but she is still young enough to be ignorant to many dark truths that other children are unfortunate to live. He hopes that whatever state she saw the two “cats” in, it wasn’t too terrible.

“U-u-um, anyway,” Mi-Cha continues. “I walked up to them, y’know? Just to make sure they were breathing? I did the thing Mama does sometimes, while I’m sleeping…”

Kim nods, knowing what she means. Despite being a woman of steel when it came to investigating homicides and engaging in the occasional shootout, Seung-Gi was always nervous around children, especially infants. When she held Mi-Cha for the first time, it had been with an overwhelming terror, as well as an overwhelming sense of love. She used to sneak into Mi-Cha’s baby room late at night (often after one of those nightmares she still never talks about), poke her finger under their daughter’s nose, and just feel her breathe.

(“Don’t laugh at me,  _ wang _ ! Do you know how many babies die of BBS each year? Too many for me to just shrug off!”)

“And then what happened?” He asks.

“And then, one of them woke up. He woke up and looked at me, and…” Mi-Cha pauses, furrowing her brow in memory. “His eyes were a dark green. Darker than a leaf…”

Kim narrows his eyes, committing that feature to memory. If these two “cats” were reported missing, it was important to keep track of any detail his daughter will mention.

“...Is he the one who bit you?”

“No...no, he just...he just  _ stared  _ at me. And I didn’t like it.”

“...No?”

Mi-Cha sends him a wide-eyed look, worried and scared and confused. “He was like a doll, Daddy. A doll with lots of bruises, and dirt, and thin. L-like he was  _ empty _ .”

Kim feels his stomach twist, his frown deepening. He knows what it’s like to face children like that, especially during an abuse investigation. No child should ever look like they have had the life sucked from them.

“What about the other cat?” He decides to ask. “Where was he?”

“Oh! Oh, yeah. He woke up right away, and…” Mi-Cha pouts and puffs her cheeks cutely, lightly waving the hand where she was bitten. “He did  _ this _ !”

Kim snorts, then quickly covers his smile. Sometimes, his daughter was too cute.

But in all seriousness.

“...Was he an older cat?”

She opens her mouth, probably ready to say something mean, but then she blinks. “Actually, they both looked the same age.”

“Friends, then?”

After a thought, she shakes her head, frowning to herself. “No. Brothers, I think. They looked too alike.”

“Well, of course they would look alike.” Kim raises an eyebrow, his smile rather wry. “They are cats, after all.”

Mi-Cha blushes, shifting her gaze to the side with a shaky smile. “O-oh,  _ right _ . Makes sense.”

“Did they do anything else?”

( _ Eyes, amber and furious, from behind a fringe of red-orange. Like he was made from fire.  _ “Stay away from us!”)

“...No.”

Kim notes how Mi-Cha is frowning, not so much in annoyance now, but in bemusement. The way she looks while trying to solve a puzzle, or one of his riddles. He slowly starts smiling again.

“You know,” he offers, “he likely acted like that because he was more afraid of you than you were afraid of him.”

“I was  _ not  _ scared,” she says, perking her head up with a frown. But after a beat, her expression softens. “But I think I know what you mean…”

“Sometimes, when a...an animal has been hurt a lot, possibly by someone they trusted,” Kim adds, his tone softer, a little sad. “They will react that way to strangers.”

Mi-Cha simmers on that last thought, her arms crossed over her chest. She taps one finger into the crook of her elbow a few times, a fidgety gesture. Humming softly, she nods to herself, her eyes lighting up. Then she beams up at Kim.

“Then I’ll just have to help them!”

Kim falters at that, his mouth twitching.  _ That’s...Child, how did you get to that conclusion? _

“Th-the cats?”

Mi-Cha nods.

“Honey, not to say this the wrong way but _how_?”

“Well, first they need to realize that I won’t hurt them,” Mi-Cha explains, like it’s the most logical thing in the world. ( _ Kids...what can you do? _ ) “A-a-and once they trust me, I can help them with all sorts of stuff.”

A beat passes, and Mi-Cha bounces from her chair. Her expression is alight with a new idea, something that will no doubt lead to a little adventure. As she gathers her homework and nearly runs into her room, where she has a little chalkboard and more notebooks to write in, Mi-Cha smiles back at her father.

“Thanks, Daddy! I know what to do now,” she says. “Call me when dinner is ready, okay.”

And then, she’s gone.

Now, Kim didn’t have the best example of parents growing up. Actually, he didn’t have the best examples of guardians in general--considering how often he’d been passed around from relative to relative when he was young. However, he knew how a father should act. A father should follow his daughter, make sure she stays safe, makes sure she doesn’t make any mistakes.

But Kim also knows that Mi-Cha is young enough to bounce back from mistakes, even serious ones. While there are things he should step in for, this is probably a situation where he shouldn’t. This is a situation where he should trust his daughter, where he should allow her to make mistakes--within reason, of course.

(Again, the child is ten years old.)

_ Still _ , he considers with an amused smile,  _ I wonder if I should tell Mi-Cha what happens when you feed strays. _


End file.
